Reading

Although I won't go into detail here, it's been a rough couple of weeks at the Cafe. Two weeks ago, as I was waiting for a cab to take me to my west-ward plane, I remembered a line from A Room With A View, my favourite book and movie. Mr Emerson said, "leave me Thoreau. . . I need him by me now." It wasn't Thoreau I needed by me, it was Jane Austen. And so, as my cab pulled up, I ran to my study and nestled Emma into my carry-on bag. There is a school of thought that says that life is too short to re-read novels and I can understand this point of view. While sitting in the departures lounge, I began to second guess my book choice. I have read Emma at least 9 times before and easily could have used my 8 hours of travel time to explore something new. By the time I'd finished Emma's opening line, I knew I'd made the right decision. I needed a friend with me and Miss Austen proved to be as good a companion as I could have imagined. When I arrived at my destination, there were many moments when D compassionately whispered "It's ok. Read your novel." Despite my decades of theorizing and discussing fiction, it was only then that I really understood the power of fiction and understood what it has offered me these many years.
When I arrived home yesterday, I happened to pick up Alan Bennett's fabulous novella The Uncommon Reader which couldn't have been a more perfect book for me. The premise is lovely: when her corgis stray, the Queen finds herself in a mobile library where she feels obligated to select a book. This chance encounter with a book mobile sparks her obsession with reading which, as one can imagine, has all sorts of consequences for the Royal household and the nation. Bennett (who, you may recall, wrote the play The History Boys) has written a novella where the prose and narrative dance between being light-hearted and poignant. Given my various thoughts about fiction over the past 2 weeks, I was particularly drawn to this passage:

"'I can understand,' he said. 'Your Majesty's need to pass the time.'
'Pass the time?' said the Queen. 'Books are not about passing the time. They're about other lives. Other worlds. Far from wishing time to pass, Sir Kevin, one just wishes one had more of it.' (29)."

Finally, there are times when one sees oneself in a novel so vividly that one thinks a novel has been written just for you. I have to admit I laughed at my double take when I read: "The librarian at Windsor had been one of many who had urged on Her Majesty the charms of Jane Austen" (74). Apparently it was a different Windsor and a different librarian. Nevertheless, if this librarian at Windsor were to suggest reading material for any monarch, she would most certainly urge on him or her the charms of Jane Austen.

PS: While Gracie, remarkably, hasn't chewed on this novel, she did find it quite comfortable.